Psychology essay

Evolutionists have argued the reproductive challenges faced byour ancestors can explain the aggressive behaviour seen in people today. A male can never be certain he has fathered his wife’s children unless he prevents her from having relationships with other males. This can explain why male sexual jealousy is often cited as a cause of domestic violence and abuse.

Daly & Wilson et al have argued men have evolved different strategies to deter their partners from committing infidelity. These range from vigilance (watching their every move – e.g. asking who they talk to on the phone, stopping them spending time with friends or reading their messages etc) to violence. This is all attributed to male jealousy stemming from paternal uncertainty (being unable to be certain he is the father of her children).

If a woman’s is unfaithful and has a relationship with another male, there is the risk of cuckoldry for the male she is unfaithful to (that he may unknowingly invest time, effort and resources in rearing children that are not his own). Male sexual jealousy is therefore explained as having evolved to prevent infidelity by women to reduce the risk of cuckoldry occurring.

Buss et al argued that males have developed strategies for retaining their mates. This includes the direct guarding (restricting her movements) of the female and negative inducements to control and prevent her straying (financial control, threat of violence if they are unfaithful or even so much as look at another man).

Wilson et al found a link between sexual jealousy, mate retention and violence supporting evolutionary explanations. Over 550 women who indicated that their partners were more jealous and did not like them conversing with other men were twice as likely to have experienced violence from their partners (72% of these needed medical assistance) However this information is purely correlational and we cannot not infer cause and effect for certain; for example it may be that men already violent for other reasons also express jealousy.

One important implication for research into sexual jealousy and violence is mate retention techniques (i.e. direct guarding and negative inducements) can be early signs of a violent relationship. Educating people in these danger signs can reduce the likelihood of women becoming victims of violence or domestic abuse. Programmes delivered by probation services now tackle domestic abuse based on such research findings e.g. The integrated domestic abuse programme (IDAP) highlighting the real world application of such research.

Shackleton et al found supporting evidence for the link between mate retention, jealousy and violence. Over 460 men and 560 women who reported to be in committed heterosexual relationships took part in their study. Women were asked about their partners’ use of mate retention techniques and how violent their male partners were. The men in turn answered about using mate retention techniques. A positive correlation was found between the men who used the mate retention techniques involving direct guarding and negative inducementsand their use of violence. Men reported to also be using emotional manipulation as a mate retention method based on jealousy supporting this explanation. The women’s results confirmed this as there was also a positive correlation between those that had jealous partners and being the victims of violence.

However there are serious ethical concerns and issues this research raises as those involved in violent relationships may inadvertently place themselves at risk by taking part in such a study. This is likely considering males are faced with questions that make them aware of what the study is about.

A limitation of the evolutionary approach is that it fails to properly explain why males tend to react in very different ways when faced with the same problem e.g. a wife cheating. For example, as Buss & Shackleford highlight; when confrontedwith their wives infidelity men react in very different ways as some may be violent; others may give in to her every desire in an attempt to keep her while others may simply avoid the issue by getting drunk or even leaving the relationship entirely.

Issues, Debates and Approaches

A Methodological problem with animal studies is that their findings cannot always be generalised to humans due to being vastly different species and having different levels of intelligence. Humans are not determined by animal instincts and to suggest we have such ancestral traits is deterministic and ignores the role of free will people have and ability for conscious thought unlike animals who are less self-aware of their actions and driven more by biological urges.There are also cultural differences that evolutionary theories cannot fully explain; For example the Yanomamo of south America seem to require male violence to gain status while in other cultures such as that of the Kung San of the Kalahari aggression leads to irreparable damage to reputation for the aggressor.

Gender Bias – Most studies of infidelity have focused solely on the males mate retention 

strategies and men’s violence against women. Women have also been found to engage in aggression and mate retention tactics and also behave very violently towards their partners. Research by Archer suggests women initiate and carry out physical assaults on their partners as often as men and family conflict studies have found equal rates of assault between males and females.This demonstrates there is a great deal of Gender bias with such theories that seem to suggest that most of the violence is caused by men when evidence suggests otherwise.

Evolutionary explanations of infidelity and jealousy suggest aggression is down to evolved responses and genes, which is reductionist and oversimplifying human behaviour.

Such explanations ignore the role of cognitive factors and are deterministic as they ignore the role of free will and peoples ability for conscious thought which can override such behaviour should they wish.

Proving aggression is down to evolution is difficult in itself to do making the theory flawed.